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Guslav is an enormously fat man, with great low jowls and a roll of fat around his neck. His eyes are glassy and bulging, with huge dark bags hanging beneath. His health is rapidly failing, and his mind is slipping into senility. He is mostly seen slumped in his seat, asleep and drooling. The brief occasions when he is awake, he's quite befuddled[1].

King Guslav the Fifth attends the Open Council assembly for the first time in years, supposedly to hear emissaries from The North agree to peace with The Union. However, Bethod's champion, Fenris the Feared, demands the territory of Angland or face war. As the room erupts in chaos, Guslav himself doesn't understand any of what was happening.[1]

Later, King Guslav attends the final of The Contest, and happily sleeps through the whole thing. When the champion in presented to Guslav, the addled King mistakes Jezal dan Luthar for his own son Raynault. He goes on to celebrate his return to Adua, for without Raynault, surely Ladisla would be incapable of rule.

Guslav loses both his sons in a short time - Ladisla by his own foolishness in battle and his lust[2], and Reynault murdered in his sleep[3]. With no heir to the throne and the King in poor health, the next King would have to be elected upon his death in Open Council. This put the nobility of the Union into a frenzy, ready to rig the votes in their interests.

Gustav the Fifth is taken to greet Colonel Jezal dan Luthar, after his victorious return from quelling the troublesome peasant rebellion.[4] The King is slumped in his chair as usual. When Chamberlain Hoff nudges the King, and he promptly falls from his throne, dead as a doornail. The resulting vote in Open Council elects Gustav's supposed illegitimate son, High King Jezal the First, thanks to Bayaz' scheming.